Border crossing to China

Leaving Sost

I ran the hot water in the shower forever but to no avail.  Kim went down to the lobby to report the issue.  Jo & M had the same problem.

After the staff had worked on it for a while, they managed to get the hot water working on M’s side of the building.  Kim and I were invited to use another room on that side while M had her own shower.  Jo had given up by now.

We took breakfast and left the hotel at 0800 for the trans-border bus at the office where we had bought the ticket.

We loaded up our bags onto the roof and then took our seats around 0815.  M decided to pay us the small amount that she owed us in PKR, which was very annoying, since we had no opportunities left to spend the currency.

The bus pulled away at 0840 for a one-minute drive to the customs and immigration centre nearby.

Pakistan exit formalities

At the customs and immigration centre, we were the third bus in the queue.

Someone had mentioned that processing begins at 0900 so we considered ourselves lucky that our turn started at 0925.

The driver that had worked hard to load up our bags onto the roof now had to unload them (and also repeat it at the Chinese border and finally upon arrival in Tashkurgan, meaning a total of three loading/unloading cycles).

While waiting for our bags to be passed down, M quipped behind Jo and I: “I suppose Kim’s not going to help get my bag down”.  What a strange thing to say knowing that we would hear it.

Text continues after this gallery.

 

 

Once we had our bags, we lined up in the customs hall to open them up for inspection. When we were done, we waited until the entire bus load of 27 passengers was done as well before proceeding next door to the immigration hall to be stamped out of the country.

Overall, the combined process was done within 55 minutes and we reloaded the bus.  Leaving the customs and immigration compound, there was an extra check to make sure that everyone had an exit stamp with today’s date in their passport.

Khunjerab National Park

We entered the Khunjerab National Park around 1030.  There was a count of hands for passengers who were not Pakistanis or Chinese (both of whom qualify for a cheap entry fee).

The actual fee appeared to have been collected by a passenger who cleverly kept track of the fees by various nationalities and giving the correct change even though some people paid in USD and others in PKR.

M paid her USD30 fee with a USD100 note and was lucky to have been given the entire change in USD rather than in PKR either fully or partially (which would have been troublesome for her).

The view in the National Park was awesome with golden leaves and snow-capped mountain ranges.  Parts of the road had been narrowed down to one lane due to rockfall which had been partially cleared away.  In other parts, the barriers have been lost due to previous rockfall damage.

Unfortunately, there were no photo stops given (but only one toilet stop), despite having paid USD30 per person or equivalent for the privilege of passing through the National Park.

We didn’t see any of the bears that were shown on the billboards at the entrance to the park, nor the Marco Polo sheep (which I thought were deers) or the snow leopard.

Text continues after this gallery.

 

 

Entering China

At 1200, we crossed the border into China through the arch that resembled the Great Wall of China tower.  The elevation of this crossing is about 15397 ft, making it the highest paved international border crossing in the world and also the highest point on our trip.  With a three-hour time difference, it was 1500 already.

A short distance away from the crossing, we stopped at the customs facility.  After a 30 min wait, the driver was given the OK to unload our bags (again).

Inside the customs hall, the very Central Asian looking officer wanted to screen Pakistanis last and discouraged people from talking.

We removed our shoes for x-ray screening along with our bags.  I had read that smuggling is the focus of the screening here, whereas coming from Kyrgyzstan a couple of years ago, it seemed less so, perhaps more focused on political and religious issues.

Kim had a more thorough inspection whereas the rest of us got through quickly.

The driver reloaded the bus and we continued towards Tashkurgan about an hour after customs inspection had started.  I chatted to the driver briefly and he wasn’t yet sure if he was returning to Sost today, tomorrow or after.  Strange way of working, I thought.

We were now driving in the other side of the road, compared to Pakistan.  There were many arrows on the road reminding drivers to keep right.  Along the countryside, we saw plenty of yaks grazing along with some Bactrian camels.

The scenery was more open rather than through deep valleys as on the Pakistan side. Unlike the drive from the border with Kyrgyzstan, there weren’t any further checkpoints.

Text continues after this gallery.

 

 

After about 1h30 of driving, we arrived in Tashkurgan city’s arrival facility around 1800 where there was a brief health check and before we waited for our turn in the passport control queue.

While waiting, I was pulled aside briefly.  The officer was curious about the Fjallraven Kanken logo on my bag.  As soon as he realised it was a brand name (perhaps instead of something political or religious), I was allowed to resume my position in the queue.

Passport control was fairly normal for a land crossing with more questions being asked than at an airport, e.g. were you born in China? Where are you visiting?  How many days? Have you got your ticket out?

After passport control, our bags were rescreened through the machine but it appeared to be just superficial as no one paid much interest.

Somehow, M had been held back outside by the bus for quite a while.  We thought that her 14-year cough might have set off some alarm bells with some officers.

We exited the processing facility at 1830 and waited briefly for M.  The hotel was within walking distance for me, even with bags, but probably not for some of the others.

Overall border experience

The day had turned out roughly as expected with about 1h30 driving on the Pakistanis side and likewise on the Chinese side, totalling around 3h.  As for the formalities, it was about an hour (customs and immigration) in Pakistan, another hour on the Chinese side at the border (customs) and another half hour in the city in China (immigration).

Settling into Tashkurgan

I put M in a taxi while we waited for another one to show up.  We got to the GreenTree Eastern Hotel at 1850 and were so pleased to be back in civilisation with a modern hotel room with everything that works, and is warm and clean.

We had skipped lunch but snacked along the way.  We decided to have a few more snacks so that we could have a somewhat late dinner by Chinese time, or an early dinner by Pakistani time.

We eventually ate at the hotel restaurant around 2045, having a kongpao chicken and stirfried vegetables.  It was a nice change to taste the umami in food again.

Tashkurgan at 10140 ft is our highest nightstop.  As people coming from the Chinese side would have ascended more rapidly, the hotel has oxygen concentrators and there are also aerosol canisters on sale.

Overall state of the Karakoram Highway

Looking back at our journey on the Karakoram Highway, I thought the “proper” part of the highway was of excellent quality.  I didn’t experience the badly broken and narrow portions that I recall from 2012.

The rough parts our journey had been more from Murree to Naran and Tarishing which is not part of the Karakoram Highway.

Curious about this, I asked Grok and it appears we missed the roughest part of the highway.  The upper reaches are excellent, as they were built by China.